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Britten Sinfonia/Elder

Mark Elder conducting with great passion

Sir Mark Elder’s electrifying series re-imagining of Brahms symphonies with Britten Sinfonia’s chamber music approach and forces take on his radiant Third Symphony.

Britten Sinfonia’s Brahms Symphony Cycle in partnership with Sir Mark Elder, which uses the smaller, more specialist string ensemble group to allow the woodwind and brass textures to emerge from Brahms’s rich sound-world, has been described by the critics as ‘exhilarating’ (The Times) and ‘palpably joyous’ (Seen and Heard International). In this performance they perform the radiant Symphony No 3, described by Clara Schumann as ‘one beat of the heart, every movement a jewel’.

Brahms is complemented with a collection of Mahler’s rich vocal music, the anguished and at times unbearably moving Kindertotenlieder, his settings of five of Rückert’s 428 poems in response to the deaths of his two children from scarlet fever. Vaughan Williams’s Norfolk Rhapsody No 1, based on folksongs collected by the composer, completes the programme.

End-time to be announced nearer the event.

Pre-concert talk

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an orchestra playing classical music in the barbican hall in central london

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Barbican Hall